MP's bill on bilingual judges going to a vote - Bugle-Observer
A1
Rob Linke
Telegraph-Journal
OTTAWA
- New Democrat MP Yvon Godin has growing confidence that Liberal and
Bloc Québécois support will be enough to pass his private member's bill
requiring that every future appointee to the Supreme Court of Canada be
bilingual.
Bill C-232 was scheduled to be debated a second time Tuesday evening and put to a vote today.
"No
doubt the Bloc will support it and the Liberals, I put it to Michael
Ignatieff - if you want to show respect for both languages, you'll have
to show leadership on this in your party," said Godin.
"I believe most Liberals will support it," said Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe MP Brian Murphy.
Murphy
said he and the Liberal MP for Beauséjour, Dominic LeBlanc, "think that
at that level, the judges should have a very good understanding of both
official languages because the arguments are so nuanced."
The
issue came to the fore after the retirement last spring of Michel
Bastarache, the distinguished Supreme Court justice from New Brunswick.
His replacement, Thomas Cromwell of Nova Scotia, is fluently bilingual.
But
the first member of the Supreme Court appointed by the Harper
government, Justice Marshall Rothstein, has been criticized for his
lack of command of French.
The court's other eight judges are all bilingual.
Federal
official languages commissioner Graham Fraser called for the Bastarache
vacancy to be filled by a bilingual appointee, as did the Quebec
legislature.
The Conservatives opposed Godin's bill at an earlier stage of debate.
Conservative
MPs have argued that Cromwell's appointment shows the current system
can balance regional and linguistic concerns with legal merit.
They also point out high-quality interpretation is available at the top court.
They also maintain the bilingual requirement would exclude otherwise capable jurists.
Some
observers have expressed fear the requirement would complicate the task
of appointing judges from regions of the country where bilingualism is
not common.
Godin counters that "the court was not made for the judge, it was made to give justice to the people.
"How can it do that if you don't understand everything that's argued before you?"
Godin wrote a letter to every MP reminding them "they have an opportunity to make history in our country."
;)
Coupé et collé de mon commentaire au blogue de Chantal Hébert:
"Si la tentative de M. Godin d’officialiser le bilinguisme au sein de la Cour suprême échoue, la prochaine revendication de la francophonie canadienne devrait être la nomination d’un juge unilingue francophone pour contrecarrer le seul juge unilingue anglophone.
Une telle campagne illustrerait l’absurdité dans la pensée que la langue n’est pas une compétence juridique requise pour la plus haute instance. Et, espérons-le, les anglophones du Canada sentirait de façon plus viscérale notre réaction à l’opposition unanime conservatrice."
Aux commentaires sur la performance des députés conservateurs québécois, j'ajoute:
"En passant, à part du député conservateur M. Lemieux, j’aurais de la difficulté à identifier un député francophone hors-Québec qui aurait voté contre ce projet de loi."